London, 14 July 2015 — The Executive Director of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), Mr Roberio Oliveira Silva, has announced that 74 Member States of the ICO and 26 coffee associations from around the world have joined forces to celebrate the first official International Coffee Day on 1 October 2015. International Coffee Day is a celebration of the coffee sector’s diversity, quality and passion. It is an opportunity for coffee lovers to share their love of the beverage and support the millions of farmers whose livelihoods depend on the aromatic crop.  An online campaign will be launched in August to spread the word about the 1 October date and encourage coffee lovers to participate in the celebrations. The campaign includes a website to feature events and other online campaigns dedicated to International Coffee Day. The hashtag #InternationalCoffeeDay is being used on social media sites including Twitter and Facebook. As part of the celebrations, the ICO has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Oxfam to collaborate on a campaign focused around the concept of a ‘caffe sospeso’, an Italian tradition of paying for a second cup of coffee to be given to a person in need. The charity campaign entitled a ‘Caffe Sospeso Against Poverty’, will give coffee lovers around the world an opportunity to show solidarity with smallholder coffee farmers by donating the value of an additional cup of coffee to Oxfam’s work with such farmers via an online platform. More information on this campaign will be sent to the press soon.  Background Many countries around the world celebrate their own national coffee days at various dates throughout the year. In March 2014, the Member Governments of the ICO agreed to organise the first International Coffee Day on 1 October 2015 to create a single day of celebration for coffee lovers around the world. The first International Coffee Day coincides with the 115th Session of the International Coffee Council (ICC) and the first Global Coffee Forum (GCF) which will take place during Expo Milan 2015. A full press release about these events will follow. Coffee associations from both coffee producing and consuming countries have agreed to join the ICO in celebrating and promoting the first International Coffee Day. For the full list of participating associations visit http://ico.org/international-coffee-day.asp About the ICO: The International Coffee Organization is an intergovernmental organization created under the auspices of the United Nations to serve the international coffee community. Established in 1963, the ICO is unique in bringing producing and consuming countries together to exchange views on coffee matters and market conditions, and address coffee policies. Among the services provided by the ICO are: up-to-date information and statistics; innovative projects to benefit the world coffee economy; coffee market reports and economic studies; consultations on coffee sector finance; as well as conferences and seminars.  Contact               Vicente Partida III Communications Officer partida@ico.org